Math 153 Elem Stat & Prob CTE

MEASURES OF VARIABILITY

Objectives

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to

1. realize the importance of the measures of

variability in describing the characteristics of a set
of data;
2. describe the set of data using the measures of
variability;
3. find the range, variance, standard deviation and
coefficient of variation;
4. develop critical thinking by giving findings, making
informed conclusions and inferences using the
measures of variability;
5. develop honesty in the interpretation of results.

CASM 3xySeS 1
 Math 153 Elem Stat & Prob CTE

MEASURES OF VARIATION/DISPERSION

A measure of variation/dispersion is a quantity

that measures the spread or variability of the observation
in a given data set.

I. RANGE
Range is the difference between the highest value
and the lowest value in the data set.
Properties:
1. The larger the value of the range, the more
dispersed the observations are.
2. It is easy to understand and is considered as the
simplest measure of variability.
3. It is a quick but rough measure of dispersion.
4. It considers only the extreme values in the data
set.

II. VARIANCE
Variance is the mean of the squared deviations of
the observations from the mean. It is a measure of
variation that considers the position of each observation
relative to the mean of the set.
Properties:
1. It is always non-negative.
2. Higher value of the variance indicates greater
dispersion.
3. It makes use of all observations.

CASM 3xySeS 2
 Math 153 Elem Stat & Prob CTE

4. Its unit of measure is the square of the unit of

measure of the given data set.

III. STANDARD DEVIATION

Standard Deviation is the positive square root of
the variance.
Properties:
1. It is the most widely used measure of dispersion.
2. It is based on all the items and is rigidly defined.
3. It is used to test the reliability of measures
calculated from samples.
4. The standard deviation is sensitive to the presence
of extreme values.
5. It is not easy to calculate manually (unlike the
range).

IV. COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION

Coefficient of Variation, also known as relative
dispersion, is the ratio of the standard deviation and the
mean expressed in percent. It shows the variation relative
to the mean.
Properties:
1. It is applicable when the distributions being
compared are far apart or data have different
units.
2. The lesser the value of CV, the lesser is the
dispersion.

CASM 3xySeS 3
 Math 153 Elem Stat & Prob CTE

Measures of Variability

A small measure of A big measure of

variability would indicate variability would indicate
that the date are: that the data are:
Clustered closely around
Far away from the mean
the mean
More homogeneous Heterogeneous
Less variable More variable
More consistent Less consistent
More uniformly
Less uniformly distributed
distributed

Example:

Consider the following sets of grades in Statistics of two

groups of 5 students each:

Male Group Female Group

Rodrigo: 100 Grace: 84
Mar: 65 Miriam: 86
Jojo: 75 Leni: 85
Bong: 85 Riza: 82
Chiz: 95 Leila: 83

CASM 3xySeS 4
 Math 153 Elem Stat & Prob CTE

Findings:

Measure Male Female

Mean 84 84
Range 35 4
Population Variance 164 2
Sample Variance 205 2.5
Population Standard Deviation 12.81 1.41
Sample Standard Deviation 14.32 1.58

Interpretation:

By just looking at their mean grade, we can

conclude that both groups performed equally well in the
said test. However, they differ significantly on all
measures of variability showing that the male grades are
more variable than the female grades because of bigger
range, variance, and standard deviation. In the same
manner, the female grades have smaller range, variance,
and standard deviation, thus we can say that female
grades are less variable than the male grades.

CASM 3xySeS 5
 Math 153 Elem Stat & Prob CTE

Exercise:
1. The following are the average number of minutes
required to do an assembly job by the 15 workers
of a manufacturing plant:
77, 85, 63, 54, 62, 78, 48, 63, 79, 69, 55, 63, 78, 71
Calculate the range, the variance, and the standard
deviation of these values.

2. Find the range, the variance, and the standard

deviation of the following set of data.
a. 7, 3, 2, 2, 1, 2, 3, 2, 4, 6, 5, 4, 18, 9, 1, 14, 10,
9, 14,11, 25, 4, 5, 22, 5, 18.
b.

Class Interval Frequency

14 – 20 1
21 – 27 3
28 – 34 6
35 – 41 11
42 – 47 8
49 – 55 7
56 – 62 4

CASM 3xySeS 6
 Math 153 Elem Stat & Prob CTE

References:

 Elementary Statistics Revised Edition

By Basilia Ebora Blay

 Introduction to Statistics
By Francisco A. Febre, Jr.

 MSA Statistics and Probability

By Merle S. Alferez, et. al.

 Soaring 21st Century Mathematics

Statistics and Probability
By Simon L. Chua, et. al.

 Next Century Mathematics

Statistics and Probability
By Jesus P. Mercado

 CASM Statistics First Edition

By Nairde D. Soaras

CASM 3xySeS 7
 Math 153 Elem Stat & Prob CTE

Life is a battle of wills,

not a battle of skills.

So more often

than not…

the one who wins

is the one who thinks he can!

Do Something!

To GOD be the Glory.

CASM 3xySeS 8
 Math 153 Elem Stat & Prob CTE

Romans 8:28

CASM 3xySeS 9